Showcase ($SHO) Review: NFT App bridging Influencers & Fans
Introduction
The life of micro-influencers can be challenging, possible revenue streams are limited, and having an impact and doing something with a more significant cause and giving back is not easy.
💡 A micro-influencer has 10,000 to 100,000 Followers. Most influencers are micro-influencers
As a micro-influencer, you can earn between $50 to $250 per paid post. Donations are another income source. On Patreon, the average monthly generated amount through donations for micro-influencers is under $100 per month, so also minimal. Merchandise is another way to earn money; here, the margins are often less than 50%
Showcase is planning to change that and create a new NFT Badge based revenue stream for creators. Besides the unique cash flow opportunity, the Showcase App can also strengthen the bond between the creator and the fan, and creators will have a chance to give back through easy fundraising.
As already mentioned in our NFTTech Review, the NFT market is rising and one of the fast-growing crypto spaces. There is an excellent opportunity to reach new people who did not get in touch with the Crypto world yet. Over time NFTs can become the most widespread use of smart contracts.
If you ask yourself, “What is an NFT?”
An NFT or Non-fungible Token is a smart contract that points to the artwork itself and a series of metadata information like:
- the supply
- authenticity
- provenance
The Blockchain secures that information.
But which role is the Showcase project playing here?
What is Showcase?
Showcase is a mobile application that empowers micro-influencers through NFT Badges and connects with their fans. The clear focus lies on Micro-Influencers to open an additional stream of revenue for them. Badges are a new class of collectibles: “Digital Merchandise.”
Unique digital designs backed by the influencer’s brand convey status through social media on-chain forever.
Micro-Influencers will be able to mint NFTs straightforwardly. Fans can purchase, trade, and collect their favorite influencer’s Limited edition NFT Badges. In the whole process will be no gas fees for users.
For a smooth user experience, credit card payments are available and enable mass adoption.
The partnership with Polygon (former Matic Network) makes it possible to build a highly scalable (>5000TPS) solution with approximately 100 to 1000 x lower fees than on the Layer 1 Ethereum. Showcase is built with Polygon and EVM-compatible to be ready to scale and for mass adoption. Showcase deploys the ERC-1155 Standard
💡 TPS = Transactions per second
💡 The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is a powerful, sandboxed virtual stack embedded within each full Ethereum node, responsible for executing contract bytecode.
💡 ERC-1155 is a digital token standard created by Enjin that can be used to create both fungible (currencies) and non-fungible (digital cards, pets, and in-game skins) assets on the Ethereum Network.
A new way of monetization and connections for millions of influencers and the possibility to reach billions of users through the network effect across social media will occur. Besides discovering new monetization channels, the partnership with one of the biggest crypto donation platforms will make it very easy to raise funds for the influencer’s favorite cause. The donation market is $427+ Billion markets per year in the US alone. As an influencer, you choose a percentage of the revenue to donate, and Showcase, together with their partner Giving Block, will take care of the rest. The percentage of the donation is transparently visible in the Showcase App.
The partner for Data Interoperability Showcase is The Graph, which enables querying networks like Ethereum. The UMA partnership secures the adaption to future DeFI utilities, and 0chain is the partner solution of a high-performance decentralized storage network.
But what problems is Showcase solving?
Problem and Solution
Lack of possibilities to make revenue for Micro-Influencers
Creative Micro-Influencers want additional revenue streams! Most Influencers are Micro-Influencers, with 10,000–100,000 followers.
Micro-Influencers can open an additional revenue stream by minting NFT “Badges” and earn and connect.
💡 Minting an NFT means that someone creates a file that lives on a blockchain that cannot be edited or deleted. Because the file exists on a blockchain, it can be viewed publicly, meaning the item’s provenance is public and verifiable. (NFTs: Legal Risks from “Minting” Art and Collectibles on)
- Fans receive collectible NFTs they can display on their Showcase profile and trade on the in-app marketplace.
- A new class of collectibles: “Digital Merchandise.”
- Digital Merchandise and its fewer fees can lead to increased fan incentivization.
Influencers want to Fundraise and have Social Impact in an easy way
There is no easy way to do so at the moment in the crypto world.
Showcase also helps Influencers raise funds for their favorite causes and give back.
With Partner Giving Block, Showcase has a strong partner for this use case. As a creator, you can select one from over 100 nonprofit organizations that have partnered with Giving Block and decide what portion of the sales prices will benefit the nonprofit. Fans can also contribute directly from the NFT viewer and donate BTC, ETH, ZCash, or other cryptocurrencies.
NFT Metadata partly rely on centralized server functions
Some NFT platforms, due to high fees, are not storing the metadata (like the link to the image, supply, authenticity, and provenance) on the Blockchain and so rely on centralized server functions.
Showcase implemented two features into the ERC-721 (Non Fungible Token Stardard) smart contract to secure NFTs without centralized servers.
- text formatted metadata stored on-chain
- a checksum of the image artwork stored on-chain.
If Showcase does not exist anymore at one point, the user will still prove that their NFT is associated with a particular artwork.
Carbon emission through shipping of physical Merchandise
The shipment of Merchandise generates billions of tonnes of carbon emissions every single year. This is a growing concern for environmental regulators and scientists.
We sometimes refer to our badges on Showcase as “Green Merch” because they are entirely digital. They show merch properties, like exclusivity, scarcity, social display, and branding. Showcase is working with social impact and climate advocate groups to raise funds for environmental awareness and protection.
Platform Feature Overview
NFT Marketplace (ERC 1155)
For Creators — How it works?
Step 1: Tell your fans
Reach out to your fans across your social platforms to sell your badge. Verified creators get access to the creator tool.
Step 2: Create a custom badge, and Launch!
Create a unique item yourself with the Creator tool, use your design, or work with an (in-house) team of designers.
Step 3: Let Fans showcase your brand
Supporters buy your badge, spread your brand and build your community. They truly own the badge and can also trade it in the app.
Showcase Features — Build-n-Earn Demo Day with Polygon (former Matic Network)
In the following Demo, you can see some features and screens of how the final product could look. Here are some ideas on how the Showcase App could work.
Showcase Feed & NFT Details
In the Feed, you can see different possible categories for minted NFTs. Here you can search and filter by category. In the detailed view, you can see the creator’s name, name, and price of the NFT.
Notification
The notifications view you have all the relevant information about badges that could be interesting, purchases, and other relevant information.
Inbox
Directly communicate with other creators and fans. Showcase is a Social Media Platform using Firebase for Scalable Messaging.
Your Showcase
Show your NFTs, Followers, and who you are following.
Advanced Creator
Influencers mint easily and quickly custom Badges for their fans and incentivize them. The NFT creator tool is available for verified Influencers. After clicking on Create, you can choose from (example) categories like Cause, Music, Gaming, Animals, Podcasts, Vlogs, Art, Sports, Style, Travel, Culinary, and Technology. Choose your Image and modify it as you see fit. You need to define details like the price, quantity, other information and publish your Badge. The NFTs are directly deployed to Matic, there will be PoS Bridge supported for Luxury NFTs.
Highly Scalable with Polygon
Showcase build with Polygon (former Matic Network) secures high scalability. The Matic Network is an EVM compatible Hybrid Plasma-PoS sidechain which allows for fast transactions (>5000TPS) at 1/1000th the cost of the Ethereum mainnet.
The reduced transaction fees will give access to a broader audience. The ERC1155 contracts are directly deployed on Matic Network. The Matic PoS layer secures the contracts.
💡 Matic PoS layer = Matic Proof-of-Stake layer
This approach should bring decentralization, trustlessness, and censorship resistance at scale.
Metadata Stored On-Chain
With these basic mechanisms implemented, a user will still prove that their NFT is associated with a specific artwork image that they can download by referencing the checksum in the event Showcase goes down permanently. And extra text metadata like descriptions and creator information will be kept alive on-chain.
Showcase ($SHO) Token
Ticker: SHO
Traded on: not defined yet
Utility
- Subscriptions (similar to Twitch subs) 💡 A Subscription (sub) in Twitch allows a viewer to pay a minimum of $4.99 per month to support your channel. (recurring or one-time basis). Subscribers (subs) get access to your emotes and other benefits you can define. There are various subs for different price levels. In Showcase, subs are called OGs.
- Stake $SHO Token $SHO holders who stake on an influencer will receive Original (“OG”) status, including access to exclusive content created by influencers, exclusive status in the Showcase App, and access to purchase certain NFT Badges.
- Governance for DAO token holders $SHO token holder can lock their tokens and earn Showcase DAO tokens. Holding DAO token you can create and vote on proposals.
How to earn $SHO tokens
- Influencers $SHO rewards Creators receive periodic rewards of $SHO Tokens. The reward will be proportionate to the $SHO tokens delegated to them by token holders.
- Incentives for liquidity providers Token holders who stake on various pools on the showcase website will be rewarded with SHO tokens.
Tokenomics (not available yet)
Team, Advisor, Investors, Partners
Founder
Reed Korach (@reedkorach)
CEO & Co-Founder
- Founder of blocktrak research
- Strategic Partner 0chain
- Digital Artist
Meir Bank (@meirbank)
CTO & Co-Founder
- Blockchain Dev, Mobile Dev, Security Researcher
- CTO Benchmark Protocol
Team
Nikolett Németh
Community Outreach
Celeb Stylist, Elle, InStyle, Influencer Marketing
Daniel Warrick
Senior Developer / Advisor (09/2020–10/2020)
Rhabit Analytics, Twetch, Boston Consulting
Max Techera
Senior Engineer
Professor ORT University, Beta Labs, Oracle NetSuite
Osvaldo Colina
Senior Engineer
The Bot Makers, Oracle NetSuite
Bruno Pintos
Senior Engineer
Front End Mobile Dev, AyP Software
Andres Haskel
Senior Engineer
Pike Aviation, Teela, The Tech Lab
Advisors
Saswate Basu
CEO & Founder 0Chain
Hans Koning
Chair & Co Founder Digibyte
Devin Finzer
Co-Founder and CEO — Opensea
Roman Krywulych
Celsius Network, Nasdaq
Stefan Rust
Investor and former CEO of Bitcoin.com
David Lipa
Entrepreneur — Stanford University
Thomas Carr
All Points Broadband — Princeton University
Jeff Koyen
Veteran Journalist, Wired Magazine, New Yorker, Crains
Dr. H. Raymond Radosevich
Venture Capitalist, PhD Carnegie Mellon
(Technology) Partners
The Giving Block
Enables unique donation campaigns for NFTs created on Showcase. Giving Block is partnering with over 100 nonprofit organizations. Users donate in Bitcoin, Ethereum, ZCash, and other cryptocurrencies.
Polygon (former Matic Network)
Showcase is built with Polygon. Matic Network is a blockchain platform using an adapted version of Plasma framework. Vitalik Buterin and Joseph Poon proposed Ethereum Plasma in 2017.
💡 Plasma refers to a framework that allows the creation of child blockchains that use the main Ethereum chain as a trust and arbitration layer. (A Complete Guide To Ethereum Plasma | Blockchain Council.)
UMA
Enables DeFi developers to build synthetic assets.
The Graph
The Graph is an indexing protocol for querying networks like Ethereum and IPFS. Anyone can build and publish open APIs, called subgraphs, making data easily accessible. All data is stored and processed on open networks with verifiable integrity. The Graph makes querying this data fast, reliable, and secure.
OpenSea
There will be an NFT Bridge to OpenSea. By having the OpenSea founder and CEO as an advisor, close cooperation should be given.
0Chain
is a high-performance decentralized storage network.
Traction
Hundreds of rising stars are pre-registered on Showcase for the beta launch, connecting hundreds of thousands of followers and potential collectors.
Upcoming catalyst events
- Capital Raise Q2 2021
- App goes live Q3 2021
Roadmap
Q2 2021
- Building pipeline
- Pre register Influencers
- Raise Capital
- Partnerships
- App Development
Q3 2021
- App goes live
- Influencers conferences
- Onboard new Influencers
- Expand markets
- Crypto Community Growth
- Opensea Integration
Q4 2021
- VR/AR integration
- NGO partnerships
- Brand partnerships
- Continue to onboard influencers
- Staking Dashboard
- Add new un-announced features Reed Korach
Conclusion
Showcase is opening new Revenue streams for Micro-Influencers through NFT-Badges. The idea can open a new category of “Digital Merchandise” possibilities for Micro-Influencers; this can have great potential in combination with Gamification elements and hundreds of thousands of people reached through Micro-Influencers. The (technology) partnerships and advisory board members’ choices seem to be very thoughtful and seem to prepare for lasting success. What is unclear is the Tokeneconomics and who will be on board as investors. Showcase is very early stage, and the following months will show where the journey is going.
Risks and Concerns
- The marketing team does not seem to be strong (enough) at the moment to build an own social network. I know the network effect, but things also need to get started. Next months will show.
- Tokenomics not available yet
- No code update in github since 2019
- Showcase began in Jan 2019 already; What happened in the last two years?
- Business model unclear
- Tax Situation for Badge Holders (Fans)
- Some LinkedIn Team members do not mention Showcase
Showcase References
Website: https://showcase.to/
Medium: https://medium.com/@showcaseteam
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MyShowcase
Telegram: https://t.me/Showcasechat
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